Banning Crying Babies

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Comments: leave ‘em way down lower on this page, under a lot of other stuff

Malaysia Airlines has made a move a lot of air travellers support whole-heartedly: it’s banning infants from first class on its long-haul 747 flights. I’m not sure this is a good idea. (Keep reading, below the white space.)

The carrier says it’s responding to passenger complaints. Fair enough. If you pay A Fortune ($5,000) to fly between London and Kuala Lumpur, you want to be able to relax in some degree of serenity. Well, so do the passengers back in steerage coach. Malaysia clearly has run the numbers, and calculated its risks. But as one poster on a message board noted, it’s a slippery slope. What’s next: Nobody with too much perfume? Someone who talks too loudly? Who smells bad? — The key here is, what’s too much/too loud/malodorous? Who decides?

A better solution might be to provide a ‘quiet room’ –which is actually a sound-proof noisy room– where parents can take their crying kids. 747s and A380s are big enough for such a space. That solution should satisfy all. PS– the airline could charge people who use it, adding yet another fee for flying. They like that.